3 Adults Avoid Jail After 9 Years of Child Abuse in Aberdeen
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 24
3 Adults Avoid Jail After 9 Years of Child Abuse in Aberdeen
2 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 24
Summary
Aberdeen Sheriff Court spared Shirley Freeman, 51, Julia Stephen, 69, and David McColl, 50, from custody after convictions over years of abuse against three children between 2003 and 2012.
McColl received 220 hours of unpaid work, 18 months' probation and an 11-month liberty restriction order; Freeman got 240 hours, 18 months' probation and a 12-month restriction; Stephen was ordered to complete 150 hours and 18 months' probation.
The court heard the children were beaten, starved, locked in rooms, denied sleep and struck with a metal-studded belt in homes in Balloch, Dunbartonshire, and on Bedford Avenue in Aberdeen.
William and Meaghann Murphy, now 25 and 28, said the violence became normalised in what prosecutors called a sustained pattern of cruelty; both were taken into care by 2013.
A 2022 Police Scotland investigation began after William gave a statement, and the siblings said speaking out now may help others recognise abuse and seek support.